My wife has had Parkinson's for 7,5 years. She has just gotten out of hospital after 14 weeks. She has had a PEG tube fitted. She needs meds 7 times per day. We have a care package, but the carers are not apparently entitled to give the medications. Apparently family members can be trained, and thankfully several of my family members can now administer them.
It would seem logical and sensible that I could also train the carers, who are very competent.Apparently this is illegal.
Has anyone any experience of this or knowledge of the legal position?
They're sort of right. Domiciliary carers can assist with medications, provided they've had appropriate training and the care provision contract allows for it. However in reality this usually means little more than popping tablets out of the blister pack and placing them within reach of the client.
In order to administer medications, carers need to have a specific medicines management qualification (which many do have) because of the regulatory controls involved in administering and recording of controlled drugs and medicines.
Not all care companies offer medication administration, and the ones that do will probably charge extra for it. Administering meds means the company loses some flexibility in that their visits will have to be on time (rather than just within a time window) and they have to commit specific carers who hold the correct qualifications. So their costs are higher.
Might be worth a chat with Adult Social Care to see if the service is available in your area, and if those arrangements could be put in place for your wife?
I would imagine that most care providers would be reluctant to allow their staff to decant medicines from a larger packet/bottle, as they have to thoroughly document it (so would have to count and record what was left in the packet each time to maintain the audit trail).
But I can only vouch for the care providers I work with here. Some elsewhere may be happy to do it, so it's worth asking them. It doesn't necessarily mean they wouldn't do it, just that they'd have to allow for (and charge for) the additional time it would add to the visit.
It may also depend on the specific medication, not all drugs are "controlled".
